Nebraska HOA Pet Restrictions

Nebraska pet restrictions at a glance

Section 1: Overview — How pet restrictions work in Nebraska

Nebraska has no statute regulating pets in homeowners associations. Pet restrictions come from the recorded declaration or CC&Rs and from rules the association board adopts, and the main legal limit on them is fair housing law's assistance-animal reasonable-accommodation requirement.⁵

The source of rule-making authority splits by community type. Condominiums operate under the Nebraska Condominium Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-825 et seq., based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and applicable to regimes created on or after January 1, 1984, with the older Condominium Property Act, § 76-801 et seq., governing earlier condominiums.^1,2 Planned-community HOAs have no comprehensive Nebraska statute; they run on the recorded CC&Rs, backed by the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, § 21-1901 et seq., for corporate formalities.⁴ Nebraska has no comprehensive planned-community code and is not a full UCIOA state.

Nebraska has enacted no statutory right to keep a pet that overrides a no-pet declaration, unlike California, where Civil Code § 4715 grants owners a right to keep at least one pet. Pet-keeping in Nebraska is governed by the declaration or CC&Rs, constrained by fair housing law.

That constraint is the assistance-animal overlay under the federal Fair Housing Act and the Nebraska Fair Housing Act, § 20-301 et seq., administered by the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission and enforceable through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.^6,7 Nationally, Nebraska sits with the large majority of states: a CC&R-primary jurisdiction with a 1980-UCA condominium statute, where the federal assistance-animal requirement is the floor common to every state. What follows sets out the legal framework, the operational rules, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for pet restrictions

2A. The source of pet-restriction authority

Pet restrictions in Nebraska carry no statutory basis. The recorded declaration or CC&Rs impose them, along with rules the association board adopts under authority those documents grant.

The rule-making mechanics differ by community type. For condominiums created on or after January 1, 1984, the Nebraska Condominium Act supplies the framework: the executive board may adopt and enforce rules and may act on behalf of the association except as limited by the declaration, bylaws, or the Act itself, under §§ 76-860, 76-861.³ Condominiums created before January 1, 1984 remain under the older Condominium Property Act, § 76-801 et seq., though several Nebraska Condominium Act provisions reach pre-1984 regimes for events and circumstances occurring after that date, under § 76-826.^1,2 For planned communities, there is no comprehensive statute; the recorded CC&Rs are the substantive source of pet authority, and the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, § 21-1901 et seq., supplies only corporate formalities such as board governance, meetings, and records.⁴

Nebraska adopted the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act for condominiums only. The condominium acts do not extend to planned communities, and Nebraska did not adopt the broader Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Nebraska also has no statutory pet-keeping right; nothing in these statutes grants an owner a right to keep an animal against a valid no-pet or restrictive covenant.

For any pet question, the order of precedence runs: federal and state fair housing law, mandatory, first; then the declaration or CC&Rs; then the bylaws; then board rules. The rule that actually governs a given community is the declaration or CC&Rs, read against the fair housing floor — not a statute.

2B. Federal fair housing constraints: assistance animals

The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., bars disability discrimination in housing and requires housing providers to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services whenever necessary to give a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B).⁵ HOAs and condominium associations are housing providers subject to this duty.

Permitting an assistance animal despite a no-pet policy or a pet restriction counts as a reasonable accommodation. Assistance animals are not pets, so no-pet bans, breed limits, size and weight caps, number limits, and pet fees and deposits simply do not reach them.⁸

The FHA category of "assistance animal" runs broader than the ADA category of "service animal." It includes animals individually trained to perform tasks and animals that provide disability-related emotional support, with no training requirement for support animals.⁸ HUD issued detailed guidance on assessing these requests in its January 28, 2020 notice, FHEO-2020-01. On September 17, 2025, HUD issued a memorandum to its Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity staff withdrawing both FHEO Notice 2020-01 and its 2013 predecessor, FHEO Notice 2013-01, as part of a deregulatory action implementing Executive Order 14281; the memorandum states the withdrawal "is not necessarily final."¹⁴ The underlying FHA reasonable-accommodation obligation remains fully in effect, so associations must still grant assistance-animal accommodations even though the detailed federal best-practice framework is no longer posted.

Where a disability or a disability-related need is not obvious, an association may request reliable documentation.⁵ It may not require registration, certification, or licensing of the animal; a specific breed; professional training for a support animal; detailed medical records; or any pet deposit, pet fee, or additional insurance premium for the assistance animal. Online "ESA registration" products carry no legal requirement and satisfy no standard.

An association may deny a specific assistance animal only on an individualized finding that the accommodation would impose an undue financial and administrative burden, fundamentally alter operations, or that the specific animal poses a direct threat to health or safety or would cause substantial physical damage no other reasonable accommodation could reduce. A denial cannot rest on breed, size, or generalized fear. The owner remains responsible for the animal's conduct and for any damage it causes.⁸

The ADA does not control here. It generally governs public accommodations and government programs, not an association's internal residential operations, and its narrow service-animal definition does not displace the FHA's broader assistance-animal protections for residents. The ADA may reach association facilities open to the public, such as a clubhouse rented out to non-residents.

2C. Nebraska law overlay

The Nebraska Fair Housing Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-301 et seq., bars housing discrimination based on disability and requires reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, and services, under § 20-319.⁶ Nebraska courts analyze these claims the same way as FHA claims.¹⁵ The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission administers the Act under § 20-139, and complaints may also be filed with HUD.⁷

Nebraska has a public-accommodations service-animal-access framework at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-126 et seq. Section 20-127 gives a person with a disability the right to be accompanied by a service animal in public places, and § 20-131.04 provides that a person with a service animal has equal access to housing accommodations, may not be charged extra compensation or an additional deposit for the animal, and remains liable for damage the animal causes.⁹ On misrepresentation, Nebraska has no general service-animal or assistance-animal misrepresentation statute. Its only related criminal provision is § 28-1313, making unlawful use of a white cane or guide dog by a person who is not blind a Class III misdemeanor.¹² Commercial "ESA letter" websites claiming Nebraska imposes fines up to $1,000 and six months in jail for misrepresenting a service or emotional support animal are inaccurate — no such statute exists in the current Nebraska Revised Statutes.

Nebraska dog law is statutory, not purely common-law. The dangerous-dog framework at §§ 54-617 to 54-624 defines "dangerous dog" and "potentially dangerous dog" by an individual animal's conduct, not by breed, and § 54-601 makes a dog owner strictly liable for damages the dog causes to any person other than a trespasser.^10,13 Nebraska does not broadly preempt local breed-specific regulation; § 54-624 expressly allows counties, cities, and villages to enact ordinances at least as stringent as the state framework, and Omaha maintains a breed ordinance.^10,11 Those are government regulations distinct from private CC&Rs. An animal adjudicated dangerous by a public animal-control authority may also trigger an association's separate authority under its governing documents, but the government and private tracks stay analytically separate.

Section 3: Operational rules and compliance obligations

A. Enforceable pet restrictions (what holds up)

When properly adopted in the declaration or CC&Rs, restrictions on the number, size, weight, and type of pets, and leash and waste rules in common areas, generally hold up, since Nebraska courts treat recorded covenants as enforceable contracts.¹ Each limit is bounded by its own terms and by any procedural requirements in the governing documents. Every such restriction yields to the assistance-animal accommodation requirement under the FHA and the Nebraska Fair Housing Act.⁸

B. Handling an assistance-animal request

The association must respond to an accommodation request through a timely, good-faith, interactive process. Where the disability and the need are obvious, the association may not demand documentation; where they are not obvious, it may request reliable documentation of the disability and the disability-related need, under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) and Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-319.^5,6 It may not require certification, registration, a specific breed, or professional training for a support animal. A denial is defensible only on an individualized direct-threat or undue-burden finding as to the specific animal, never on breed, size, or generalized fear.⁸

C. Pet fees, deposits, and insurance

An association may charge pet fees or deposits for ordinary pets if the declaration or CC&Rs authorize them. It may not charge any pet deposit, pet fee, or additional insurance premium for an assistance animal; for service animals in housing, § 20-131.04 separately prohibits an additional deposit or extra compensation.⁹ The resident remains financially responsible for actual damage the animal causes.⁸

D. Enforcement and disclosure

For condominiums, the executive board enforces pet rules through reasonable fines and other remedies under the Nebraska Condominium Act, § 76-860, and the bylaws; for planned communities, enforcement runs under the CC&Rs and the association's corporate authority.³ Contested matters proceed in the Nebraska District Courts. On disclosure, the Nebraska Condominium Act requires a seller of a condominium unit to furnish the buyer, before conveyance, a copy of the declaration, bylaws, and the association's rules or regulations, along with a resale statement, under § 76-884, so recorded pet restrictions are disclosed to buyers through those documents.¹⁶ Planned communities have no comparable statutory resale-disclosure mandate; pet rules reach buyers through the recorded CC&Rs.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months amended the Nebraska Condominium Act, the Condominium Property Act, or the Nebraska Fair Housing Act, and none created an assistance-animal or service-animal-misrepresentation provision affecting associations. The one recent animal-related enactment, LB133, from 2025, bears only indirectly on associations.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published decision of the Nebraska Court of Appeals or the Nebraska Supreme Court within the past 36 months addresses HOA pet restrictions or assistance-animal accommodation. The controlling Nebraska authority remains Guenther v. Walnut Grove Hillside Condominium Regime No. 3, decided in 2021 — outside the strict window, but still governing.

C. Active legislative debates

No assistance-animal, service-animal-misrepresentation, or condominium pet bill was pending in the 2026 session; the 2026 housing measure LB1094, the By-Right Housing Development Act, touched HOA and condominium covenants only tangentially and did not pass as a stand-alone act.¹⁹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Among the states, HOA pet authority falls into two groups. A small group grants a statutory right to keep a pet, and California's Civil Code § 4715 is the clearest example. The large majority, Nebraska included, leave pet authority to the recorded declaration or CC&Rs with no pet statute. Every state shares the same federal floor: the FHA's assistance-animal reasonable-accommodation requirement. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that in Nebraska, the binding rules for planned communities come from the CC&Rs and the federal and state assistance-animal analysis, not from a state HOA code. Nebraska's distinctive features are a 1980-UCA condominium statute paired with CC&R-primary planned communities, a statutory dangerous-dog framework that leaves room for local breed ordinances, and the country's only unicameral, nonpartisan Legislature, whose bills carry LB numbers.

HOA Weekly's Nebraska Pet Restrictions coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the courts act. The federal Fair Housing Act's assistance-animal framework applies to Nebraska associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-825 (Nebraska Condominium Act, how cited) ↩
2. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-826 (applicability; Condominium Act to condominiums created after January 1, 1984, Condominium Property Act §§ 76-801 to 76-824 to earlier regimes) ↩
3. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-860, 76-861 (association and executive board powers, including reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules; board may act on behalf of association) ↩
4. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-1901 (Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, how cited) ↩
5. 42 U.S.C. § 3604 (Fair Housing Act; § 3604(f)(3)(B) reasonable-accommodation duty), Office of the Law Revision Counsel ↩
6. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 20-301 to 20-319 (Nebraska Fair Housing Act; § 20-319 disability discrimination and accommodation) ↩
7. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-139 (Nebraska Fair Housing Act administered by the Equal Opportunity Commission) ↩
8. HUD FHEO-2020-01, Assessing a Person's Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act (Jan. 28, 2020): assistance animals are not pets; two categories are service animals and support animals; pet rules do not apply ↩
9. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 20-127, 20-131.04 (service animal; access to public places and to housing accommodations; no extra compensation or additional deposit; liability for damage) ↩
10. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 54-617 (dangerous dog and potentially dangerous dog defined by conduct); §§ 54-617 to 54-624 dangerous-dog framework, including § 54-624 authorizing local ordinances at least as stringent as the state provisions ↩
11. Omaha Municipal Code Ch. 6, §§ 6-157, 6-163, 6-165 (pit-bull definition; leash and muzzle requirements; $100,000 liability insurance; "breed ambassador" muzzle exemption) ↩
12. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1313 (unlawful use of a white cane or guide dog; Class III misdemeanor) ↩
13. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 54-601 (dogs are personal property; owner liable for all damages to any person other than a trespasser; strict liability) ↩
14. HUD/DOJ Joint Statement, Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act (documenting the FHA reasonable-accommodation and direct-threat framework that survives the September 17, 2025 withdrawal of FHEO Notices 2013-01 and 2020-01) ↩
15. Guenther v. Walnut Grove Hillside Condominium Regime No. 3, Inc., 309 Neb. 655 (2021) (analyzing FHA and Nebraska Fair Housing Act reasonable-accommodation claims together) ↩
16. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-884 (resale of unit; seller must furnish buyer, before conveyance, the declaration, bylaws, and association rules or regulations) ↩
17. Nebraska LB133 (2025), 109th Legislature, First Session — animal control officer authority and immunity; amended Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1008, 28-1012, 28-1012.01; effective May 21, 2025 ↩
18. Guenther v. Walnut Grove Hillside Condominium Regime No. 3, Inc., No. S-20-574, 309 Neb. 655, 961 N.W.2d 825 (July 2, 2021) (affirming dismissal; accommodation must be necessary, not merely preferred) ↩
19. Nebraska LB1094 (2026), By-Right Housing Development Act and Permitting Approval Timeliness Act (referencing enforcement of restrictive covenants and condominium/homeowners association regulations) ↩